Prior to the conception and development of the present invention, those wishing to press wrinkles out of clothing have typically used a one-sided iron in combination with an ironing board. It is common now for these irons to optionally produce steam as well as heat. Removal of wrinkles from clothing is also accomplished sometimes with a steamer that generates steam and directs it up against the fabric of a hanging clothing item. The steamer applies no pressure to the clothing; hence, the fabric is not as smooth as it would be by ironing with pressure, steam, and heat.
Allvin in U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,724 teaches a hand tool for pressing garments that has triangular-shaped jaws, only one of which is heated, and there is not steam. Frank et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,309 teaches a hand-held steam press consisting of two opposing short press plates from which steam can emanate, but there appears to be no heat supplied other than by the steam. Clevenberg in U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,024 discloses a two member hand-held clothing presser which may have heating plates on one or both or the two members that are hinged at one end.
Carballada et al in U.S. Pat. No. 7,380,556 teaches the electrical elements for a hair straightener that produces steam and heat, but only on one arm of the apparatus provides steam. A common shortcoming of all this prior art is the relatively narrow path that these devices smooth as they are drawn across a larger clothing item such as a shirt. Making the arm members longer may seem like an answer to that, but another problem this creates is additional drag as more surface area of cloth is pinched between the two arm members. Clevenberg refers to this problem in column 17, line 35 by referring to the need to limit the clamping force so that it “is not so tight as to prevent moving the dual iron device 10 along the fabric 48”. This drag becomes even more of a problem if the heat plates of the ironing device are not exactly parallel to the cloth surface as the ironing device is pulled along it.